


hurry boy, it's waiting there for you

by gilligankane



Series: you can tell everybody this is your song [41]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: 80's Music, F/F, Mixtape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: This is going to be theperfecttreehouse.





	hurry boy, it's waiting there for you

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to [this tweet](https://twitter.com/WayhaughtBookC/status/1172875369017434112). A twitfic that got out of hand.
> 
> Takes place in May 2006.

Nicole sucks in a deep breath and lifts the hammer up in the air, her arms aching. There’s sweat beading on her forehead, running down her neck, and into the collar of her t-shirt. She regrets wearing her Manitoba Summerfest 2004 shirt. She brings the hammer down and catches just the edge of the nail head.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Wynonna says for the seventh time in ten minutes. Nicole sits back on her heels and glares over her shoulder. Wynonna puts up a hand and shrugs. “I’m only telling you.”

“You’re _only_ sitting on your ass, too.” Nicole winces as Rand runs past her, weaving in and out of the carefully laid lumber. He doesn’t seem to hear her as he careens through the yard. He sneaks in between Dolls’s legs, calling out his name happily. 

Chrissy stops at Nicole’s side, panting. “What do you think the return policy is on kids?”

Nicole offers Chrissy her water bottle even as her throat aches. She tries to dab most of the sweat off her neck. “I don’t know. I’d wait until he gets that cast taken off. It kind of decreases his value.”

Chrissy sighs. “‘Have a boy,’ Dad said. ‘I’ll take him fishing and hunting and teach him how to drive a car.’” She pushes her hair back out of her face. “Should have taught him to _climb_ down out of trees instead of _jumping_.”

Nicole snorts. “Where’s the fun in that?” Her shirt sticks to her back when she looks up at the tree in front of them. She can see the bottom of Alice’s sneakers dangling above her as she swings her legs back and forth. “Hey, Cool Rider. Did you find something you like?”

Hayley is the one who sticks her head out from behind the leaves. “Not yet, Auntie Nicole. Alice is ‘taking her time’ and won’t pick a tape.”

Alice’s legs kick out. “I’m _curating_ your experience,” she says, voice floating down. “This is _educational_.”

Nicole lifts and eyebrow. “_Curating_.”

Alice pokes her head out and grins. “Aunt Waves taught me that word.”

Nicole grins back. “She’s not wrong. Music is-“

“Here we go again,” Nathan interrupts from behind her. He claps a large hand down on Nicole’s shoulder. “Hey, Little Miss Magic,” he calls up to Hayley. 

Hank winds himself into Nicole’s side. She looks down at him with a smile and runs her hand through his hair. It’s getting long now as the spring ends. He’ll get it cut for summer, buzzed down until he’s the spitting image of Nathan. She pushes most of it out of his face and thumbs his nose. “Hi,” he says quietly. 

Nicole whispers _hi_ back. She scans the backyard and finds Waverly next to Jeremy, the two of them set up in some lawn chairs Gus unearthed from the garage. “Your Aunt brought that book you wanted to look at.” He’s gone in an instant, curling up at Waverly’s feet. 

“How was she?” Nathan asks.

“Yeah, good.” Nicole hands Nathan a second hammer from the belt around her waist. “She stayed up too late, ate cotton candy until her teeth turned blue, and gargled with soda.”

Nathan grins. “That’s my girl.”

“Speaking of your girl...”

“She’s still not home.” Nathan sighs. “One weekend a year. That’s it. She’s gone for one weekend a year and I hate it.”

“That’s love.” Nicole pushes at his shoulder, in the direction of the tools Doc dropped off before he went to the garage with Rosita. “Get busy and you’ll forget all about it.”

The back door opens, the frame slapping hard against the side of the house. Gus steps onto the porch, shielding her eyes from the sun. “Wynonna, get in here and give me a hand!”

Wynonna pushes her sunglasses down her nose, her beer bottle hanging from her other hand. “I’m busy.”

“Take her,” Nicole says loudly. 

“Get her out of here,” Dolls says at the same time.

Wynonna pouts. “But I’m helping you.”

Nicole scoffs in Wynonna’s direction. “You and I have always had different definitions of _help_.”

Wynonna feigns a gasp, a hand over her chest. “Some kind of best friend you are. Willing to sell me out to the first person who comes looking. Am I worth nothing to you?”

“Wynonna!” Gus shouts again. 

“You’re worth exactly one 1986 Boston Third Stage tour t-shirt.” Nicole grins crookedly. “Give or take a few sleeves.” 

Wynonna huffs and rolls her eyes. She points a finger at Nicole. “You. Me. The Triangle at dawn.” But she gets up and shuffles across the backyard towards the house. 

Nicole palms the back of her neck, grimacing at the sweat, as she looks around the yard. Chrissy has managed to get Rand to settle in one place. Hank is still sitting at Waverly’s feet, his head down as he flips through the book Waverly brought him. Jeremy is sitting next to them, talking animatedly, hands moving a mile a minute. Nathan has moved under the tree, talking to Hayley and Alice. Dolls is working steadily on the stairs they’re building. Nicole scans the lumber they bought through the hardware store and grins; this is going to be the _perfect_ treehouse. 

It’s going to be the kind of treehouse Nicole had wanted when she was younger. The kind of treehouse that she wished her dad would build her. They would have done it together. Her and her dad and Nathan. It would be their thing. Just for them. No moms allowed. 

He hadn’t built it. Instead, he left. 

Nicole is going to build this for Alice and Hayley, though. And when they’re older, they’ll let Rand and Hank come up. It’ll be theirs. Their own Sekrit Hideout. They’ll still have the woods. They’ll still need a place to get away; from their moms and their dads and their aunts and uncles and their grandmas and grandpas and little brothers. From Purgatory. But this treehouse, in Gus’s backyard, can be theirs. Nicole and Wynonna will always have outside of Wynonna’s bedroom window. Alice and Hayley will always be able to have their very own roof. 

She hooks the hammer she’s holding into her tool belt and pulls at the sweat-soaked shirt that sticks to her chest.

“Hey, you.” Waverly steps up next to her, all neon lights in the bright pink and blue shirt she picked out of the back of the closet this morning. _In case I want to get my hands dirty_, she told Nicole. The most she’s done is lead the kids in an awful rendition of “Whip It” that will haunt Nicole longer than the song itself has. 

Nicole smiles softly. “Hey, yourself. That for me?” She points at the glass of lemonade in Waverly’s hand.

Waverly holds it out to her. “You looked… _sweaty_.”

Nicole snorts. “I am.” She wipes her brow and runs her hand over Waverly’s arm. “See?”

“Nicole Haught,” Waverly hisses. “Sweat is disgusting. And unhygienic.”

“That’s not what you said last-“

Waverly smacks the back of her hand against the flat of Nicole’s stomach. “There’s children here.”

Nicole grins and wraps an arm around Waverly’s waist. “Wynonna went into the house.” She tugs when Waverly tries to wiggle away, keeping her close. “Come on. You can kiss me. Everyone already knows about us anyway.” She leans down to whisper in her ear. “We’re married, you know.” She looks down where her wedding ring shines in the sun. Waverly’s sparkles.

“Are we?” Waverly asks lightly. “Because the last time I checked, I was married to the Sheriff. Not this… sweaty contractor.”

“So I won’t quit my day job, then.”

“It’s 85% of the reason I love you,” Waverly agrees, smiling. “But this is the other 15%.”

Nicole laughs a little. “What, the sweat?”

“The love you have for other people,” Waverly says seriously. She flattens her hand against Nicole’s stomach. The sun catches her eyes, and Nicole feels like she’s listening to “Love Walks In” and “Hysteria” and “When You Love a Woman” all at the same time. “I love how much you love everyone. Our family.”

Nicole looks across the yard. Just for a moment, she thinks she sees him. Curtis. Tucked back into the shadow of the back porch. Gus opens the back door, and he’s gone again. “Well,” she says, blinking slowly. “Maybe you’re just easy to love.”

Waverly snorts. “I’ve never heard anyone say that about us. Ever.”

“I have.” Nicole presses her lips to Waverly’s forehead. “Curtis said it, once.”

Waverly turns her face into Nicole’s shoulder. “He was a smart man.”

“Taught me almost everything I know.” Nicole smiles into Waverly’s hair. “Gus and my mom taught me all the other stuff.”

They stay there for a moment. The yard bustles around them. Gus is carrying out another round of lemonades. Wynonna kicks open the back door as she balances a tray of sandwiches. Dolls is letting Jeremy fuss over him. Nathan is showing Rand how to hold a hammer. Chrissy is sitting in the grass with Hank while they take turns reading. Alice and Hayley are swinging above her. Toto is floating in the air around them.

Everything changes around them so quickly. 

“This treehouse won’t build itself!” Wynonna shouts around a mouthful of ham and cheese.

Nicole shakes her head. Some things stay exactly the same.

Waverly presses a fleeting kiss to her jaw and slips out of her arms. 

“Think there’s a fluffernutter in there?” Nicole asks hopefully.

“Not if I get it first,” Alice yells from above her as she jumps off the branch. She lands with a _thud_ next to Nicole and takes off across the lawn, dodging piles of lumber. Hayley comes down slower, reaching for the hand that Nicole offers her before she jumps down the last two feet.

Waverly leans into Nicole’s side. “I’m sure that Gus put one aside for you.” She steps forward, reaching for Nicole’s hand. Their fingers tangle together, and Waverly smiles widely at her. “Coming?”

Everyone is crowding around the stairs, taking up the shady patches of grass. Wynonna looks back over her shoulder and tips her head. _Come on, loser. We’re eating_. Gus lifts a hand to her eyes and crooks a finger in her direction. Alice shouts for her, Rand echoing her a second later. 

The treehouse might not be perfect. She might not hit every nail on the head. But her family is here and they’re helping. 

Maybe _this_ is the perfect part of it all.


End file.
